>> the final seconds just to say thank you very much for spending time with us. a very much appreciated. thank you. >> thank you. >> we have completed our four weeks of special debate editions. you will see the first district congressional candidates in their only televised debate this year. republic and ben lange and democrat bruce braley. live from dubuque. we will show it at our usual press times and again on sunday. thanks for joining us today. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012]

>> that was republican congressman steve king and democratic challenger christie bill suck debating on iowa public television last week for lsack debating and iowa public television last week for the fourth district. in a moment we will take your phone calls and street and get your opinions. here are the phone lines to weigh in on tuesday's election. ou can also send us a tweakeet

using the hash tags c-span 2012. tonight at 8:25 p.m. eastern, republican presidential candidate mitt romney and his wife will be at a campaign rally in inglewood, colorado. that is tonight a 20 5:00 p.m. eastern time. benda obama and former president pilic -- tonight at 8:25 p.m. eastern time. then obama and former president bill clinton will hold a rally. next up, brief remarks from obama and mitt romney in obama's weekly address. he talks about the response to hurricane sandy. gov. ronnie gave the republican address this week. he talked about the u.s. economy and the presidential election. >> this weekend, millions of

americans are still picking up the pieces from one of the worst storms in our history. i toured new jersey with governor chris cristie and witness the devastation firsthand. it is heartbreaking. families have lost loved ones. entire communities have been wiped away. even the first responders to repeatedly put themselves in harm's way have had losses of their own. today, i ask everyone to keep them in your prayers. as president, and promised them this. your country will be there for as long as it takes to recover and rebuild. throughout the week, i have been in constant contact with governors and mayors in affected areas who are doing an excellent job in extraordinary circumstances. we owe the first responders to have been working around-the- clock our deepest gratitude. our first priority is to make sure if the communities have everything they need to recover

from the storm. i ordered that resources be made available as soon as they are needed and instructed my team not to let red tape and bureaucracy get in the way of solving problems, especially when it came to making sure local utilities could restore power as quickly as possible. and before the storm came, fema pre-staged emergency response teams and deployed food, water and generators of and down the corcoast. by midweek, the department of defense was ready to fly in cargo planes but would be loaded with equipment to help local power companies get up and running faster. the recovery will still be a long, hard road for many families. it is a long road ahead. if you have been directly impacted by this storm and need temporary assistance getting back on your feet, you can call 1-800-621-fema, or apply at

disasterassistance.gov. if you know folks who are still without power, and please let them know. if you do not live in an affected area, contact the red cross to find out how you can help. when the storm was darkest, the heroism of our fellow citizens shone brightest. nurses and doctors at nyu hospital brought newborn's downstairs. firefighters rescued people from apartment buildings. coast guard crews save a sinking ships pins in stormy seas -- save a sinking ship in stormy seas. that is who we are. we are americans. when times are tough, we are

tougher. we put others first, we go the extra mile, we open our hearts and our homes to one another as one american family. we recover. we rebuild. we come back stronger. and together, we will do that once more. thank you. god bless you, and god bless america. >> hello. i am nit romney, and as you probably know, i am the republican candidate for president. i would like to start off by saying that our thoughts and prayers are with those on the east coast to have been affected by hurricane sandy. americans come together in times of crisis. our first impulse is to come to the aid of those in need. this time is no different, and we will help our fellow americans recover from this tragic storm. in just a few short days, americans vote to the polls and cast their ballots. many are thinking about election day, november 6th. but we should also be thinking about november 7th. that is the day we will know if

we made the right choice, whether we settled for more disappointment and decline, or whether we set about a new path the will deliver real recovery and real change. when you step into the voting booth, i would ask you to think about the last four years. four years ago, canada obama promised to do so very much, he has fallen so very short. after all of the petty partisanship, standoffs and stalemates, 23 million americans are still struggling for work. on friday, the unemployment rate rose to 7.9%. 47 million people are on food stamps. our economy is still on life support and our country is 16 trillion dollars in debt. we cannot afford four more years like the last four years. but that is exactly what obama is offering. instead of a plan to address our serious challenges, his campaign has focused on phony issues. instead of thinking big, they

have wound up looking small. the question of this election comes down to this. do you want more of the same or do you want real change backspin and -- change? obama promised change, but he could not deliver it. i have promised change and i have a record of achieving it. we need a real turnaround if we're going to get our economy going and get americans working again. i have led that kind of effort before. in business, i helped people turn their dreams into success stories. together, we built names like staples, bright horizons and sports authority and helped create over 100,000 jobs. when i became governor of massachusetts, the economy was in bad shape and the budget was out of balance. the legislature was 85% democrat and people were not sure if we could get the job done. we work together. by the time i left office, we

had moved past 20 states in job creation and turned a deficit into a rainy day fund. whether in public office or private business, i did not ask people what party they belong to. i asked them what ideas they brought to the table. as the governor, i met with leaders of both parties to find common ground. that is what i will do as president, and i will start on day one. on my first day of office, i will send five bills to office and signed five executive orders. everyone of them will help us create jobs. that is just the start of my plan to create 12 million jobs in my first term alone. every piece of legislation and every executive order will help us achieve five important goals. first, to achieve north american energy independence by 2020. second, to make sure students and workers have the skills they need to succeed. third, we will promote trade that works for america and cut down on countries like china when they cheat.

fourth, we will cut the deficit from day one and balance our budget within 10 years. finally, we will champion our small businesses, of the engine of job creation in this country. we do not need more petty partisan attacks. we need a leader with a real plan that will deliver real results. my opponent has spent much of this campaign talking about small things, but the challenge we face are real and big. that is why paul ryan and i are focused on how we can make our way back to prosperity and opportunity, how we can rebuild a strong military and fashion a strong economy. the choice before you is clear. we can wait four more years for real change or we can take things in in a new direction in just a few short days. on tuesday, the choice is yours.

our destiny is in your hands. i hope to have your support and your vote. thank you and god bless america. >> presidential candidate mitt romney given the republican weekly address. and before that, of obama giving his weekly address. all day, c-span is bringing you the dates from some of the most hotly contested senate and congress races around the country. here are the numbers to call to share your thoughts. you can also send us a tweet. let's get to the phones and hear what you have to say. anthony is in cedar rapids. were you watching the debate of

iowa oppose a fourth? fourth?s caller: i have been writing to the president for some time on how to actually create jobs. both candidates are going to have a problem because they're going to have to work with the banks but the banks don't loan of entrepreneurs and the money even though we are living on capital. it is going to be very hard core us to actually create those jobs. -- for us to actually create those jobs. there was something they had planned where you could get money -- it is tied into the securities exchange. i do not know what ever happened to the program. but you could actually get money from investors, people you do not know. the way it is right now, it is

like 35 -- you only can get 35 with an escort. that makes the kind of difficult to really start something. that is what i wanted to point out, because what people do not realize is that ross perot, he was a businessman, but we did not elect him to create jobs either. host: how does this affect your vote? >caller: my vote is for obama, but both candidates hands are tied when it comes to creating jobs. the way most people -- they do not really have any collateral buildups. i am going to tell you right now, there is a lot people that wants to start a business.

host: you are calling us from iowa. did you watch the debate we just showed? caller: yes. host: what did you think? caller: cristie vilsack, she's got some real good points. i do not even remember the other guy's name. i remember her name because i wanted to talk to her about how we create jobs. host: david is we are trying to create jobs. this seems to be the big thing. no one is talking about the fact it cannot be serious about jobs when you are allowing in hundreds of thousands of illegal workers still every year into

the country. the highest per-capita of these workers was in the district of columbia. why are they not being honest tax if we're serious about talking about job creation and put a moratorium on this foreign labor, all the candidates only have this from virginia. he has said specifically that he would put a moratorium on foreign guest workers. this makes a lot of sense. these people are really genius and top-notch, we are have the old one. this hb1 is splicing american.

if you are an older white male, forget about getting a job in silicon valley. that assessment taken over by foreign workers. this is a big issue that it will affect your boat? >> the obama administration has been somewhat concerned with the screening. in terms of coming out and saying we're going to be serious about putting american citizens first and line both candidates have not said so. we're concerned that romney is off for stapling and automatic green card to every foreign students. we are hearty graduating more than enough grads in the disciplines.

according to one study, there are 101,000 u.s.-born individuals within engineering degree who are unemployed. they're not even in the labor market. they have a job in engineering degree. >> i will leave it there. >> thank you for taking my call. i would like to comment on a few quick issues. the romney ticket wanted to let the automobile industry go down. now they try to backpedal and say all types of things. they tried to indicate that they did not feel that way. they barely clearly did. i do not think the american public should allow them to

backpedal. it is very clear that ryan and romney want to turn medicare into a voucher system. that the spear into the heart of not only people that you're 50 or 55 years old, those that are not there yet to be very careful. we should be very wary of the romney/ryan ticket. romney has done a fantastic job on everything including this latest hurricane relief, which romney/ryan wanted to get rid of the month. -- rid of fema > host: how closely are you watching the senate race? caller: pretty closely.

i think bob casey has tremendous character and integrity. he has done so much for this state. he certainly is focused on small business which is very important. he does not overregulated. he has enough regulation to try to protect us from too much pollution, things like that. he let industry prospered. he really has a great balance on that. host: let's take a look at a couple of tweet. fifes president obama listing out the storm victims and romney tried to lift up himself and his agenda. that is a reacting to the recently addresses. obama is lying about benghazi. what is going on? to kathleen on

our independent caller line. caller: i am calling in regard to i saw the debate in iowa. i was really impressed with that debate. it was so simple. they did not interrupt each other. it was refreshing. as far as the upcoming election, i am not satisfied with these past four years. my concern is with mr. romney. he is going to do big change. i am not sure what that change is going to be. he keeps changing what he says. i am concerned with mitt romney and paul ryan.

there are lots of issues and things that i do not think forever answer directly. host: let's hear from charles. if you are in of ohio were so much of the action is unfolding. caller: that is true. host: what is it like? have been out to any campaign event? caller: i have not. i get a lot of calls. first of all, where is the church in defending moral issues? we cannot expect our politicians to take on this fight it the church is only passive. what is our moral compass that

our politics are more important than our faith? our faith should decide how we boats. -- vote. we tried to put got out of the white house, i think we're asking for serious problems. mine is a morally based. host: joseph, independent caller. caller: when you consider mitt romney, he has been running since the day his father lost the election. knowing this, you would think he would have the decency to have a one of his sons join the service. i really feel strongly about that host: tell us about voting in pennsylvania.

caller: it is hard to tell because you do not see signs for either candidate anywhere. we are not engaged. i live in philadelphia. i think it is going to go heavily for the president. host: are you watching the senate race? caller: i have a feeling bob casey will hold out. host: republican caller. caller: i have this for donald trump for he challenged a so far to get this information about and where hetes fo went to school. he never came forward. i think that would have been a good deal. and million dollars to the favorite charity and it is money.

i have another issue with the obamacare. it seems like everything got real quiet with the debate with obama. he really did not go into obamacare. that is a really big issue. a lot of my friends and family are in medical care. they say if things go through the way they're supposed to come and they will probably not have jobs. hello? host: we are still listening. caller: this has been in missouri on the radio about issues with defense money that is going to israel. they do not think it is going to israel but terrorist hands. they have a petition now on one

of our local radio stations to get on the internet and go ahead and put your name on it that you do not want your money being spent because it is not proven that it is going to the israel government. >> you're calling us from missouri. in a little while we look good to the missouri senate race debate. that is a debate between clearly paschal -- claire macaskill and tod akin. what they're using is the big issues in that race? caller: a lot people are mad. they think that we can do better with our government, like rummy promises. -- like to make money promises.

yes been in business. he knows how to make it work. i completing to the american people that they get him a chance. i have had a full-time job in a part-time job trying to make it as a single mother. also, it is a feeling in faith. host: how is it influence your vote in the senate race? caller: i'm going to go republican. that is the way i am feeling. you know,. host: here to give us more insight is it politics reporter at the st. louis post dispatch. thank you for joining us. give us a sense of what is going

on in missouri. this has been very intense. guest: the race has tightened. clear and taught a again have been hiding for a month now. after he won he made a very controversial comment that women can somehow avoid pregnancy after a legitimate rate. that has covered the race in a way like no other. immediately after he dropped in the polls and lost his funding. republicans the route taken no -- the route have taken their support.

will she be able to make her case to missourians that he is too extreme based on that? we are seen the polls tighten. they think about how they really want to vote. missouri has an interesting demographic. 39% of his voters are born- again the evangelical christians. akin is a christian who wears that on his sleeve. he is not afraid to talk about it.

host: we saw some evidence that she was distancing herself. as she continued to do that? might we see her splitting some votes? guest: dishabille much closer than the mitt romney race in. his support is very strong. he appears to be doing well. this is an interesting electorial state. what we're seeing in the at here is interesting.

it says you may not agree with todd akin on everything, but he will vote for mitt romney. they're running ads with mitt romney's comments asking with him to step out of the race. mitt romney is being used by both candidates in a very interesting way. host: you been writing about money in this state. how much of the dollar's our local? , it is outside influence? guest: clara has done really

well and raising money particularly after the comment todd akin has made. akin saw his funding dropped off. he started raising money in small dollars. this has become a rational race. the servicing national dollars. a lot to these people said they would stay out of this race. they were not going to chase good money after bad. they thought technology would lose. now they're back after seeing some of those polls. we have seen millions within the last week alone. there is only so much television time. we're going right down to the

stretch. host: what are you hearing from voters? isn't making an impact? caller: i think they do in some way. there would not be spending all this money if they were not. at some point they just become one ad after another. it becomes a rapid fire. someone may think what is going on here? the message is not getting through. they have a tendency to focus and on things the candidates want them to focus on? they do get a message out there. by tuesday voters are tired of it. they're starting to make their mind up. these are going to get more

intense. it is going to prove to be the deciding factor. you can read his , here now we will go to a debate between those two candidates running for the senate seat in missouri. this comes to us courtesy of st. louis. the debate is from october 18. it features such her career mc caskill and todd akin. about ba ♪ >> good evening. welcome to clayton chamber u.s. senate debate. my name is mike bush. i will be your moderator for this evening. first, we need to thank our presenting event sponsor, the

law firm of hush blackwell, and our media sponsors, ksdk news channel 5, st. louis public radio, and the st. louis business journal. ksdk is televising this broadcast live to its affiliates across missouri. st. louis public radio is affils across missouri. st. louis public radio is doing the same. the broadcasts is also been streamed live on ksdk.com and stlpublicradio.org. we also invite you to take

part on social media on twitter. finally, our appreciation to the city police and fire department, as well as the school district of clayton for hosting tonight's event. before we begin, i'd like to review the debate format. each candidate will give a 3- minute opening statement and a 3-minute closing statement. next, our panel will ask questions of both candidates. both candidates will answer the same question and have one and half minute to do so. rebuttals will be at the discretion of the moderator and will have 45 seconds. after that, we will take questions from the audience, who received an index card as they entered the auditorium. they were asked to print their questions out. i will pose those questions as long as time permits. let me introduce our official time keeper, rose windmiller. rose, please hit the green light. this means that the candidate should respond. when 30 seconds remain, both the green and yellow light appear. when 10 seconds remain, the yellow light will remain.

when time is up, the red light will have to cut the speaker off. the audience in the hall has agreed to be polite and attentive. no cheering or booing or outbursts of any sort. we will set aside that agreement just this once. ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the clayton chamber of commerce and our event sponsors, please welcome senator claire mccaskill and congressman todd akin. [cheers and applause] a coin toss was held last week to decide who would make the first opening statement. congressman akin had decided to go second. claire mccaskill. >> thank you. thank you for this debate and for congressman akin for being here. if you are watching this at home, i understand completely. it is great to be here and to have a debate about very

important issues. i went to washington, d.c. as an auditor and prosecutor to solve problems for missouri families and to hold government accountable to taxpayers. i knew it would take a couple of things. it would take hard work. it would take a compromise. first, in remarks. i had no idea the earmarking process was until i got there. lobbyists and campaign donations. i said, i will not play this game. we should do this based on merit and not who you know. i never asked for an earmarked. i went to work with republicans senators such as mccain and

other republican colleagues. we banned earmarks. i am proud of that work. congressman akin has requested hundreds of earmarks. he was a proud defender of the year marking process. he said it was a constitutional principle. then there is contracting. as a prosecutor, i looked up of government contracting that was going on and look at what was going on in iraq and afghanistan. once again, working with both parties, we were able to really reform bureaucracies that was wasting your money in ways the contracting practices. then a couple of years ago, more than a couple of years ago, the conservative republican senator from alabama came to mean to work on putting a cap on capital spending. together, even though my party leadership fought me, we were to put a cap on capital

spending. that made a difference. a strong bipartisan record, it is much different than congressman akin's record. he has voted against some very important programs. he wants to privatize medicare and abolish the minimum wage. he wants to say that rape victims cannot get emergency contraceptives. he says, no more student loans in the federal system. he wants to privatize social security. he even says that a boss has a right to discriminate against you if you are a woman. he says that his freedom. i think that is not fair. moderate vs extreme. this is a very big choice for people to make. >> thank you.

congressman akin, three minutes for your opening statement. >> thank you for being here and making the debate possible. i have worked at ibm and work in the army. my wife and i have been blessed with six children and eight grandchildren. one is in the mediterranean serving tonight. i am blessed tonight to have my parents who are here with us. dad is 91 and served in world war ii. my mother, we talked her into cooking dinner for us. we are here because we want a cheerful and hopeful future. that has to come with the right

choices and wise decisions. unfortunately, claire mccaskill and barack obama have not given us such a future. claire mccaskill she was the first to endorse barack obama. she was his strong right hand, voting with him 98% of the time. what does the record look like? first of all, instead of jobs being created from the stimulus bill, we have had record months of unemployment. deficits, we were promised that would be cut in half. it has tripled. energy, the funding of solyndra, the epa given the power to shut down certain districts. and of course, stopping drilling in the keystone pipeline. gas prices have risen. claire mccaskill voted to pass it. there is a reason for this record of failures.

that is because obama and ms. mccaskill have a deep abiding faith that government is the ill their records.prob she is going to washington, d.c. she has brought us red tape and all kinds of bureaucracy and executive orders. she does not understand that these big government solutions choke out freedom. what i would suggest is that you could bring me to washington, d.c. in the senate so that we can take the missouri common sense back to washington, d.c. cut down on the taxes and red tape and build an american dream and the american family once again to be strong and restore our bright hope for our future. thank you. i look forward to joining you for the rest of the debate. >> congressman, thank you. we turn to the panel for their questions.

we have the first question. your question goes to congressman akin. >> congressman akin, today the head of goldman sachs, bank of america, the city grew, and many other major financial institutions sent a letter urging the president and congress to avoid the looming tax hike and spending cuts that we call the fiscal cliff. which of your stated positions are you willing to compromise to break this budget gridlock? please be specific? >> where you are talking about is january 1, 2013. some people call it

"taxmegeddon." there is a problem of the sequestration and the 10% cut to defense and a tax increase. all of these pose a lot of challenges. the solution of this has to be done in a couple of things. reduce the size of the federal government and get the private sector going. you cannot do just one or the other. the best thing to do is first, get the red tape under control. they are driving our business efficiency down and pulling jobs overseas. second, we got high unemployment, but we have the highest corporate tax rate in the world. that does not make sense. we need to reduce the corporate tax rate. a combination of those things, reducing the federal spending

and take care of the red tape and reduce the taxes. put that together and you have put the budget under control. >> thank you. senator mccaskill, your response. >> i do not think i heard anything about compromise. democrats and republicans have been trying to hammer out a compromise. there have been many revisions done. we know what we have to do. we have to get to a trillion dollar budget. the simpson-bowles proposal had a lot of things in it that were worthy of our considerations. i have looked at pieces of simpson-bowles. there were some democrats and republicans and that was a hope for fixing this problem. the hope is in the middle. we must take a balanced approach. we need to compromise. we need to lower the corporate tax rate. we also have to create more

revenue for the deficit. we cannot just cut the size of government. we need to cut the spending of government. this combination of things is how we can get to the compromise. we will not get their by shouting at each other. we will only get there in doing bipartisan support and meeting in the middle. >> thank you. next question goes to senator mccaskill. >> senator, what will the national press say about voters if your opponent is elected? >> i do not really care. it is not something i worry about, what the national press says. i am more worried about the people in the state and the things that they face. i am a mother with three young children.

i know what it is like to live on paycheck to paycheck. that is what i am focused on. this preoccupation with the press is saying -- i want to get to work. i want to make sure we have student loans. i want to make sure we have social security and medicare. i want to make sure people can rely on minimum wage. i want to make sure the work place is there. i am not that concerned on a slave. if i lose this race, i will hate it because i want our government to reflect our best hopes and dreams. congressman akin's view is very narrow and leaves a lot of people out. even if i am sad, i care about the voters, but i could care less about the national press.

>> congressman, same question. >> it seems to me that i have had a time to travel for 18 months around the state of missouri. i have a good sense about where the people are. 71% of the people have voted on the issue regarding obamacare. take a look at the other things important to the citizens of missouri. we need to have jobs. we have 43 months of the worst job record since the great depression. people care about the second amendment and the constitution in the state of missouri. my record is clear on that. i support the second amendment and the constitution. it seems to me that my views

are very much in sync with the voters of this state. i am opposed to the still the record until the policies which have given us the unemployment and the lack of jobs and other miscellaneous problems such as gasoline prices doubling. my views are consistent with the people of missouri. i believe that they will elect me to that u.s. congress. >> senator, would like a rebuttal? >> i did nothing so. >> we have the next question for congressman akin. >> congressman akin, a tax credit has been in place for 20 years, but it is set to expire by the end of this year. some estimates that many jobs are supported by this credit. will you vote to renew it? >> look, i think the approach we should take on energy is to have an energy policy. i think energy sources should compete with each other. the approach we have been

taking obviously does not work. in terms of wind, i am happy for it to compete with coal, gas, nuclear. let these different sources of energy work on their own. the fact is, we have not been developing energy the way that we should. think about america. it is amazing how we have an unlimited supply of coal, natural gas, and oil. we are sitting on all of these resources in america, but we have not that help them. why? because of big government. all kinds of rules and regulations that do not allow us the things that we should be doing. what is the costs? our gasoline prices have doubled. if we continue to shut down the coal policy, as barack obama has

told us he will do and claire mccaskill voted to give them the power, then our electric prices will go up. what we have to do is take the blessings we have in america and use it wisely and allow these different forms of energy to compete with each other. let the citizens make the choices of what kind and where they want to get their energy. >> thank you. senator mccaskill. >> congressman akin and i have different views. he does not believe in alternative energy. ironically, he is willing to do whatever it takes to protect big oil subsidies. oil is the most profitable companies. the make billions of dollars in profits every year. we are giving them billions every year. we have tried time and time

again to say, let's stop giving big oil corporate welfare at the expense of american tax payer. but every time, the republicans keep blocking it. he will not support, from energy was subsidies, but he will do anything to protect big oil. i have it the other way around. we need alternative energy, including wind and solar. as long as we are doing it safely. i support wind, solar, all of that. i do not support giving tax handouts to oil. >> congressman, would you like every bottle? >> would you like a rebuttal? >> i would like a rebuttal. i believe she supported $6.9 billion -- $6.9 trillion dollars worth of deficit spending and she calls herself a "moderate."

the thing that comes to my mind is, how much do they have to spend to become a liberal? >> senator? >> congressman akin has been a lot of time in his campaign talking about stimulus and other things that are wasteful. look at his record. he is only opposed to stimulus because of the democrats in the white house. therefore hundred billion dollars in stimulus. he voted for it when bush was president. $156 billion stimulus package. march 2, 2002. the very seventh, 2008. $145 billion stimulus projects. during the bush years, that is when we lost the clinton surplus.

congressman akin was right to asking for earmarks. >> thank you, a senator. next question for senator mccaskill. >> the chamber represents a large number of small businesses web had to make difficult decisions, like cutting their labor force and reducing their salaries, and cutting back on expenses during the recent economic crisis. it is clear that most governmental organizations and did not make the same decisions. this is evidenced by a growing federal deficit and several states and communities are now bankrupt. do you have a real plan to

encourage the federal government to cut back on expenses? >> we have shed a lot of public-sector jobs to this very difficult economic time, both local and state. we are beginning to shed federal jobs. it is not all in the employees we need to shed. we do not want to contract everything. that is why i supported a federal cap on spending. i am number50. i have worked to bring down federal spending. it is very important. we need to cut taxes for small businesses. i have done both of those. the st. louis home builders came to me and said, they will put an new rule on us. can you help us with this regulation the are proposing? i went to work. there was an unreasonable requirement on them during this difficult time in the economy. we need of the discipline to

spend less money in the federal government. >> thank you, senator. congressman akin, please respond. >> i understand small-business says. the come to my office in droves. they all have the same story. the only thing that changes is a particular federal agencies that are giving them such a hard time. everyone has the same story. they say, it feels as if the federal government is trying to destroy us. they are our enemies. it is these inspectors at come. no matter what you do, they will find more things wrong with you to the point that businesses are telling me that they are intentionally leaving things for the inspectors to find because they know they will get

hit with a fine no matter what. we have created an environment that is toxic for businesses. we have radical deficit spending. we have a federal government out of control with the amount of red tape and things that they are imposing on businesses. we wonder why then we do not have any jobs and why that jobs are being sent overseas. talk is fine, but the fact of the matter is, the unemployment and the deficit and the whole situation with the economy speaks for itself. it is now working. big government is not the solution. >> thank you, congressman. our next question is a senior co editor for the globe news magazine. please ask your question. >> congressman akin, would you speak of your commitment to

improving public school education in missouri? especially given the educational choices you have made for your own children. i am referring to your decision to home school your children and senator mccaskill's to send at least one of her children to private catholic schools. >> thank you for that question. all of us understand that education is critical. one of the things we have in america is something called the freedom. people can choose to educate the way that they want. we need to preserve that freedom. one of the things i have done that not another congressman in missouri has done is to vote no on no children left behind. i do not have abiding faith in the government to fix problems in education. even though it was my president

who offer the bill, i told them no. i do not think all of the red tape in washington, d.c. helps our schools. i was willing to stand on the basis of principle the education needs to be local. what makes the best education is when you have a mom and dad that loves their kid and puts a high priority on education. with that kind of formula, education can work well for people. i support the freedom for people to choose the kind of education that they want. i do not believe the answers to fixing our schools in missouri can be helped in any way with a large bureaucracy of the federal government. people could save money by getting rid of a lot of the education bureaucracy. it does not contribute to our education. thank you. >> ms. mccaskill, your response. >> i am grateful for my public education. i graduated from the university of missouri. it has allowed me to be the

person that i am today. our country allows us to be that city on the hill. congressman akin has been clear that he wants a program and completely out of education. no more department of education. no more school lunch program. what is harder to understand is that he wants to do away with pell grants and all student loans. i do not know many private banks that would loan money to a 17-year old that does not have money. 300,000 young people in missouri are attending college because a federal ban student loan or pell grant is helping them. i had a student loan. i could not have gotten through law school without it. i had to wait tables in addition to the loan.

it took me eight years to pay it back, but i paid it back. we have to be that door of opportunity open. federal government's involvement in education is important to our country. this is not about bureaucracy. it is a huge difference between congressman akin and myself. >> you have 45 seconds for a rebuttal. >> we are a trillion and a half in deficit spending, maybe we need to shrink the government down. i suggested that maybe the school lunch program could be shifted to the state. i do not know whether the lunches taste as good if the state does instead of the government, but ms. mccaskill seems to think everything is a crisis if you do not have the government do it. there were many student loans that were done by private

institutions. obamacare changed that. you do not have to be -- >> congressman, you are out of time. >> i want to clarify. what happened with the private lending of student loans? they were the middle man administering the loans. the risk of the student loans remained with the federal government. we do not need the middle man to take a cut. we will have them go directly to the students. we need to save that money that the bankers were making an all- out kids to get the loans directly from the schools. what congressman akin has said is of the federal banking of the loans is a problem.

if the federal backing is not there, the banks will not make the loans. >> senator, thank you. we will proceed and to the next portion of our program with questions from audience. first question goes to senator mccaskill. "i was born in mexico and immigrated to the u.s. since the age of four. my family and i kept a close eye on immigration policies. if you are reelected, how will you impose these policies and related factors?" >> i do not think anyone should be allowed to jump a line by breaking the law. i believe it is important to we enforce those laws, particularly against employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants. i asked the immigration and customs agents see how many

employers have you prosecuted for knowingly hiring illegal immigrants? they did not even know. they had not emphasize that. we have turned the corner. you are beginning to see a drop in illegal immigration. part of that is because we are pushing them harder to enforce this law on employers. on the other hand, any student wants to stay here, we should be stapling a green card to their college diploma. we need them in this country. if you are a young child and you have been brought here through no fault of your own, they should not be forced to return to a country that have never known or even loved it. that is why i support the dream act. >> thank you, senator. congressman akin, your response. >> thank you. all those at some time either ourselves or our parents were an immigrant at some time.

we follow the law. america is a nation of laws of. first, we have to clean up our laws that have to do with immigration. at the same time, we cannot allow the president authority to impose a law that has not been passed by congress. that is what happened with the dream act of. the situation with immigration is one where we have to allow different states to be able to enforce our own laws. what that federal government has not been enforcing immigration laws. you see a crisis on the border. they had even gone to this fast and furious idea of giving high-powered rifles and two drug dealers as people are doing here in trafficking across our

borders. somehow we do not have the backbone in the senate and administration to even enforce our laws. if you are a nation of laws, you have to enforce the law. i am sympathetic to people coming to this country, but it has to be done in an orderly and legal process. businesses should not be hiring illegals. we need to do a check on that, which has been closed down. >> our second question from the audience. "what misconceptions do you want to clarify about yourself?" >> thank you for the question. i suppose there is nothing like a debate like this for people to take a look at people. we have been all over the state. i believe the election process is a fair one and a good one. as i have mentioned, the reason

that i am running for this office is because i see the bright hopes for america is being diminished by a field record. the thing is, you can talk and news and the destruction that you want, but the fact is that there is a record and their record has not been good. we have had unemployment unlike anything we have ever seen since the great depression. we have reached all level of deficits. you can talk about being irresponsible, but when you promise to cut the deficit in half but then triple it, that is not a good sign. and health care situation, these are things that people have to take a good look at in this election. 71% of missouri citizens have said they do not want obamacare. then you have a senator who goes out and vote for it. people are starting to understand that this is an

election about records. it is an election of what have we seen in four years? i understand. i have traveled around the state. people have realized it is not working. time for a change. >> senator, some question about misconceptions. >> that is a hard one. some people have the misconception that i am not willing to stand up to anyone in anything when i think the policy in mind is the wrong. there is a misconception that because i supported president obama that i agree with him 98% of the time. i really agree with my mother 98% of the time. he was disappointed when i would not vote on the captain trade. i was disappointed when he refused to quickly approve the keystone pipeline. there are differences. but i have tried to do as a member of the senate is think about missouri. i do now worry about whether the leader of the democrat party is mad at me.

i think that congressman akin is anxious to put out there that somehow i am doing the bidding of my party or a president when i'm really to do the bidding of missouri. >> senator, thank you. >> and do i have a chance to respond to that? >> you can. 45 seconds. >> i did not said that she agreed with him that many times. i said that she voted with a 98% of the times. i wanted to make sure that was clear. this was a record. this is not just talk. this is a record of her voting 98% of the time. >> for six solid years, i have been smack dab in the middle. you do not get to the middle by doing what your party wants. you do it by compromise.

>> do you support all forms of the stem cell research? >> i do. i believe the lord gave us this opportunity. i believe in all of the research that has been done. we have the ability to find cures. it is an important part. it gives hope to millions of people in this country. i am proud of the work that has been done in missouri. this is important medical research.

it is important it continues. >> thank you. congressman? >> i think it is phenomenal in the kind of things that are done. as i recall, there are over 40 different stem cell cheers for things that anybody else in the previous decade would have thought was impossible. there is that embryotic stem cell that i do not support. there was a report out last week that said you do not even need that type of stem cell. you can use an adult stem cell. there is no need to do the embryotic. i am pro-life. i believe life begins at conception. >> next question from audience. "what criteria do you plan to use in deciding whether to vote

to confirm a supreme court nominee?" >> the first thing is that we are a system of laws. the job of the court is to interpret and the existing law and not to create law. that would be the very first thing i would look for. if you take a look at some of the big social upheavals and allows the decisions you get out of the d.c., a lot of it comes from judges who got frustrated and wanted to become legislators. that would be the thing i will look at in a judge. i will look for a judge that does not think of the constitution is plastic and need to adapt some ideas from some foreign country and stick it in and pretend that is part of our constitution. i do not think that is the right way to go.

i believe we have to keep the judge is doing the proper function of judges. that would solve a lot of problems. it also tends to push problems further down so that states and local communities can decide what they want to do instead of having the federal government and the supreme court acting like they are bought and telling us one thing or another. >> congressman, thank you. senator? >> i look to judges who have had experience in a court room. it is important that you can relate to the cases that you hear in a real way. whether you have spent time as a lawyer in the courtroom or a judge, that is important to me. i would love for us to have a supreme court judge that did not go to harvard or yale. i really think having someone on the supreme court that went to a really good state school and maybe did not go to one of the ivy league schools would be

good for the court. we have a very conservative court in some ways now. there is a president to call corporations people. activist judges are in the eye of the beholder. if you like a decision, and they are not and activists. if you do not like the decision, the are activist. the judges i want to confirm are the ones who have had a real- life experience in the court room and can relate to people whose lives are at stake when they make an important decision. >> thank you. another question from the audience. senator mccaskill, you are first on this. "how would you reserve medicare for retirees?"

>> my opponent would privatize medicare. the way that they are planning to privatize it would only give you a certain amount of money to pay for your insurance. after that, you are on your own. i do not think we can afford to buy prescription drugs for people who have money. we have got to figure out a better way to bring down costs by incentivizing the system in a different way. right now, my mother is ill and has a lot of chronic conditions. she can have several blood works in a month. from 3 or 4 different doctors.

having a primary care doctor -- check for customer satisfaction. they say $17 million in the federal government wrote them a check of $4 million. let's take that to scale. that makes sense. >> congressman, your response. >> first of all, let's talk about medicare and what the record is. claire mccaskill has voted to cut billions of dollars out of medicare. i have not. our record is different. what is at $1,716 billion include? 66 billion for home health care. 156 billion for medicare advantaged.

that is money that she voted to take out of medicare. that is not help medicare. in addition, she voted to put a 15 person board of rationing health care and deciding how old you are and if you can get a particular treatment. that is a bad idea. what we have to do the fix medicare is get the government out of the price setting business for every particular procedure and allow a whole host of people to bid on that so seniors have a choice of the providers that they want. seniors deserve a choice. they ought to be able to pick the kind of system the what and do not have it forced upon them

by the federal government. there is one thing worse than having the insurance company between the patient and the doctor, and that is having the federal government between them. >> 45 seconds for a rebuttal. >> congressman akin voted to remove that same amount of money from medicare now wants, but twice in the right and a budget. the difference is that instead of using that to fill the doughnut hole, like we did in the affordable health care act, the use that to make sure that the hospitals did not need so much reinforcements. what did they do? they gave kim kardashian another tax cut. that is what they did. i saved medicare and never cut one dime.

>> she has got it wrong. that billions of dollars that the republicans put in the medicare stayed in medicare. we did not take it out and put it somewhere else. that is factually not correct. >> congressman, this is a question from the audience. "what is your policy in about the isreali and iran situation"" >> we should work with the people who are our allies and stop apologizing to a people who have been our enemies. it is unsafe for our country and for the civilized world for iran to be able to develop nuclear weapons. that has to be stopped. i believe that we should have benjamin netanyahu come to our

country and have a meeting. we cannot lead from the rear and apologize. all that does is encourage them. all that our enemies understand is -- america is strong. >> iran cannot be allowed to get a nuclear weapon. military action is on the table. the sanctions are working. i was part of the group that did press. we did bipartisan legislation to screw down the sanctions.

we cut them off from the world bank. finally, we have people around the world that have joined us. we have iran surrounded. we have to stay vigilant. the middle east is tough. we have to be thoughtful. we have not been apologizing to anyone are leading from behind. there are differences in our records. i have been on the leading edge of sanctions against iran. congressman akin voted for aid to iran. he voted against aid to israel. this is backwards. we have to always support israel. we should not be supporting iran. >> congressman?

>> the packages she is talking about, she has misrepresented the record. i am in fact the one that is supporting that we should not be giving foreign money to a number of places. that includes libya and pakistan and one other country as well. when someone burns our flags and tortures people who have given us information to get osama bin laden -- those people are not our friends. >> he is running ads about me. not one member supported this extreme amendment.

every republican said this and make our country in danger. this would not make us safer. this would not make the middle east safer. there are 10 senators that voted for this amendment. this is the position he wants to take the u.s. senate. he is on the extreme edge. he is not being thoughtful or reasonable. this is not politics. this is the safety of our nation. >> our time is running out. we have to proceed by asking the candidates to offer in your final remarks. first, senator mccaskill. >> well, it has been great to be here at this debate. i appreciate everyone watching and participating. there are many differences between congressman akin and myself. we have talked about some of

them tonight, but there are many more. i hope the people know the truth about todd akin. i really wanted to talk about equal pay for equal work. i had to work my way through school. i am focused on parity in the workplace. it should be guaranteed in our constitution. congressman akin has said that is not what he supports. he supports the bonds being able to decide whether or not you get paid less because you are a woman. if you look at his office, he is the boss that does that. his female staff makes a percentage less than the men in his office. that is not the way we should have it in america.

if you are doing the same work, you should get the same pay. also, it is very important that we keep government spending down. i have sponsored efforts to do away with automatic pay raise for congress. i have never voted for an automatic pay raise for congress. congressman akin voted to raise his pay. in 2002, he voted to raise his pay. he was the only member of his delegation to vote against the farm bill. he was one of 14 to say no to -- in 2004, he voted to raise his pay and oppose the school lunch program. he voted to raise his pay in

2006 and then voted to cut the that program. in 2007, he voted to raise his pay and voted against funding for head start. i have worked my way through school. i went to washington after learning about the beauty of justice in a court room. i also learned how to keep government accountable by being a government auditor. i am proud to be called a moderate. i believe in a compromise. i believe in moderation. >> senator, your time is up. >> i asked for the honor to represent you again. >> congressman. >> thank you for making this time possible. claire mccaskill seems to want to escape from the failed, economic mess that has been created in washington, d.c. she seems to be like a magician and telling you to look over

here while she puts her hand in your pocket. look at our economy and where jobs are. both of us have voted on a series of things. what your decision should be based on is you need to judge on our records. starting off, claire mccaskill made the promise that should be transparent in the things that she was doing. when you take a close look at that, you find out she has gotten rich making a business that takes advantage of other people being in poverty. she transferred $39 million to her home business and there's no record of transparency whatsoever. she talked about the stimulus bill that had a billion dollars in there. she cut funding for veterans and teachers that manage to get

millions of dollars in for her home business. so much for transparency. we have a war on coal and we are stopping drilling and the keystone pipeline and gas prices have doubled. we have a record that is as bad as the depression. they said they would cut the deficit in half. barack obama and claire mccaskill have tripled it. in health care, we said we did not want it to. 71% said we did not want it. what did we get? obamacare because of claire mccaskill. the reason these policies failed is because they forgot the secret of america's greatness. america was founded on this visionary idea that is based on the life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

we have seen the police officers and firemen. we can espresso our opinions. we can keep the things that we have earned. the pursuit of happiness, the idea that every single one of us is different and each of us can pursue the dreams in our own hearts. as americans have done that, people tell us, you can do it, it will not work. americans have been courageous and have said, i will try. america has been built, one dream at a time. it is called the american dream. it is about freedom. that is the reason why 4% of the world's population has produced the results we have. i asked you to vote for me for the u.s. senate. >> before we adjourn, i want to thank the candidates. we appreciate your willingness to share your respected views. a round of applause is appropriate.

[applause] we thank our media sponsors and blackwell and st. louis business journal, the clayton chamber commerce committee, and the clayton jazz band, the school district of clayton, and the two members of his communication team. also, david blake, and the city police and the fire department. our timekeeper as well. do not forget to vote on tuesday, november 6. this concludes our program for the u.s. senate debate. thank you for joining us.

we stand adjourned. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> we have been wanting it debate and the missouri and the st. louis. claire mccaskill and representative akin. real clear politics shows the latest poll numbers and the that tight race with senator mccaskill slightly ahead. the senator was back on the campaign trail this week after taking a pause in the way -- in the death of her mother. we will have more from some of the most tightly contested house and senate races around the country in a little while. first, president obama stops by fema headquarters in washington

do you see for a an update -- washington, d.c. for an update on the hurricane center relief efforts. >> to give you some degree of the amount of impact with individual assistance registration is now over 122,000. approved and direct about the two peoples accounts is over $107 million as of 11:00 a.m. this morning. these numbers continue to go up as people register. we know the word is getting out but there are still people that we are still trying to reach, to make sure they know how to do this. for businesses, their registration gets them to the small business administration which is part of the individual assistance. the administrator and her team

are putting out reach to businesses. many of the small businesses, even if they had insurance, are probably having challenges with business - >>. so they can get money in relatively quick. we want to see places start to come back as power comes back on. as part of the president's disaster declaration from tuesday morning, the sba disaster program has been activated but we are trying to get the word out to businesses that are in the declared counties that they are eligible for low-interest disaster loans and they can apply for that assistance as well. the other thing we have done first in new jersey and then yesterday in new york, there are a lot of people over 18,000, and that number fluctuates, that are in shelters and people that

may not have damaged homes and would not normally qualify for our traditional housing program. but we have activated transitional sheltering assistance. bogle is that people, -if they are people- the goal is that people, a are displaced and are in shelters, they can register with fema and they will provide short-term housing assistance. generally the shelters -- we were starting to see the population, particularly with power restoration and some of the other issues in certain parts were natural gas monopoly available and people may not be able to get home because of the buildings not been opened yet, they can apply for and receive a voucher and get into a hotel or motel room.

this is considered short term. not really for the folks that will have the longer term housing needs because their homes are badly damaged or destroyed. that program has already turned on. but this program gives it little more ammunition to the team to take people currently in shelters who want to move somewhere else who will not be able to get home right away while they await either power restoration or being able to physically get back in their homes. this was turned on in new jersey and yesterday new york turned on. people do not have to do anything different than to register with fema.' it is designed for those who are still in shelters because of disruptions and their inability to get home due to the storm. with that, i will turn it over to the red cross. >> thank you. good afternoon. i will be brief so we can get your questions.

we're pushing heavy mobilization and distribution of food resources in particular. we served approximately 400,000 meals and snacks yesterday. to date, more than 4200. but cross volunteers are on the ground. probably the most important things i want to tell you folks that -- the red cross workers are up about 10% from the day before. we are mobilizing our entire fleet emergency response vehicles from across the entire country. roughly two-thirds of them are already on team. we are mobilizing our entire volunteer work force and are incorporating also other volunteer programs.

we are bringing in support for mexico and canada as well. we have six feeding kitchens. emergency vehicles are on seen already with many more of writing. 25 straight teams coming in from philadelphia and five more of other surrounding states. in new jersey, and we have seven kids and locations and vehicles distributing food. warming shelters and facilities, stalking those with additional blankets. everything needed to make sure to take care of folks after the

storm. the digital disaster operation center and the red cross has a large team of people tracking social media and other sources to get a really good handle. we are able to attract anything related to the storm. we are listening to it with an army of folks helping guide this. this is a new and tremendous resource for the work we're doing on this very large disaster. with that, i will turn of back over to a prepared to answer questions. rex thank you. we are ready to take our first question. >> from the defense alleges this agency, where is the unleaded

going into is overseeing that and when will i get to new jersey? >> some of that authority be distributed in new jersey. the agency is providing the fuel occurred in -- coordination with the state in new jersey. we can get you the updated locations for that with the already have some of the first fuel deliveries in state and are starting to make some of those available to the community. >> how long will people be allowed to stay in the hotels? >> we generally get them into hotels or motels up to a couple of weeks. if it turns out their homes are such that it will not be able to get back then, we will start

looking for long-term housing. generally we will be looking for rental properties. the housing program traditionally goes up to 18 months. a lot of people today are in the shelters and to move into a hotel or motel, it is more comfortable for them. they can take care of themselves. we have families that need it accessible hotel rooms and the shelter environment was difficult for them. by using this program, we got them into an accessible hotel room this is designed as an intermediate step.

if we determine people need that right away and that is their option, we can go into a longer term housing for them. >> thank you for doing this. there is a report this morning that fema does not have enough water to distribute to volunteers and is soliciting vendors, looking for 2.3 million gallons per month a year is that the case? >> we are sourcing water. we go out and contract with the vendors for water. we already have the water that was initially staged in based upon the demand that was there a come out with our sourcing 1 million gallons of water addition a day. fema, we have some we maintain in warehouses but once they go into response, we have pre negotiated contracts that are in

effect. we turn this contract on and go to our vendors and city want the water delivered at this rate to these locations. we are active in the contracts in addition to the water restore first out the door. once we start operations, but will start ordering water based upon the demand. these are predetermined contracts reluctant disaster starts, we place those orders to keep the supply flowing. >> [inaudible] >> [unintelligible]

>> we were not able to hear that. chemical circle back with him and take the next question? -- can we maybe circle back with him and take the next question? >> i am not sure this is a fema question. governor cuomo announced gas stations would go up in the new york metropolitan station -- area today. in getting 10 free gallons of gas. there was a radio report that said the pentagon was canceling them. can you shed any light on what is happening. >> i would refer that to the defense logistics agency this was part of the overall mission to get additional fuel into the

areas. we would refer that to the defense logistics agency. >> next question. >> you mentioned warming shelters and centers. how do those compare and how those work with the shelters that have already been set up? >> traditionally sheltered to lead to stay overnight in get meals and other services. a mormon shelters are set up more for people to go do not have hit -- and warming